Daily industrial news and top headlines for plant and maintenance managers

The Chicago-based aerospace company said the reorganization will result in fewer research jobs in Washington state and California and is being undertaken to better meet the needs of its commercial airplane, military and space and security units.

D-Zolve™ 1012 from Solvent Kleene, Inc. is a paint and powder coating stripper and remover designed to efficiently strip hard-to-remove powder coatings, autophoretic/autodeposition chemical coatings and electrocoatings from intricate part shapes.

Put together a car guy and a great designer, and you get a 3D CAD design for a 1927 racecar. Cideas has 3D-printed a 1927 Miller 91 model car using all four major 3D printing processes (FDM, Polyjet, SLS, and SLA) in just six weeks. The car is a 40 percent scale model and was created with 100 percent 3D-printed parts.

Wearable technologies have long been a sideshow to mainstream laptop and smartphones, but this year Google's glasses and rumors of Apple's iWatch are popularizing the field. Analysts forecast swift growth. Last year the market for wearable technology — encompassing everything from hearing aids to wristband pedometers — totaled almost $9 billion. That should climb to $30 billion by 2018, said analyst Shane Walker at IHS Global Insights.

3D printing is going further and further every day, and perhaps soon, to a galaxy far, far away. NASA is using 3D printing technology to build complicated rocket components faster and cheaper. NASA is currently testing a rocket engine, it's thruster produced by a 3D printer.

NASA has successfully tested a new kind of rocket engine component created using 3D printing. The engine injector was put through high-pressure, test firings of liquid oxygen and gaseous hydrogen, and it passed.

Kentucky has landed its first major tenant at a battery research laboratory in Lexington as the state jockeys for a prominent role in developing next-generation automobiles. NOHMs Technologies Inc. said Wednesday it will locate research, product development and manufacturing operations at the Kentucky-Argonne Battery Manufacturing Research and Development Center.

South Korean researchers have developed an electric car that folds in half for easy parking. Named for the armor-covered mammal of the same name, the 'Armadillo-T' is a two-seater prototype vehicle that is designed for commuters in busy urban areas. Reuters' Rob Muir has more.

A topic that doesn’t seem to come up, at least via outlets that are 3D-printer friendly (which are in a powerful majority at this point), is the proliferation of piracy thanks to the quickly emerging 3D-printer market. Much like Napster brought a slapped major record labels across the face, 3D printing is poised to make major manufacturers shake in their boots… maybe.

With the emergence of 3D printers into mainstream markets, what the devices actually do seems to matter less than what they will do, or could be made to do, in the future. Will they create a crisis of unregistered, undetectable firearms? Or will 3D printers become such a life-saving medical necessity that future consumers will regard the technology as unremarkable as the current practice of casting broken bones?

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk urged the public to polish sketch plans he released last week for a "Hyperloop" that would shoot capsules full of people at the speed of sound through elevated tubes connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco. From tinkerers to engineers, the race is on.

The CC100 is Aston Martin's new concept vehicle that features a carbon-fiber body and sports a 1950's race car look. But don't expect to order one anytime soon. The CC100 concept car is made almost entirely of carbon fiber and was introduced as part of Aston Martin's 100th birthday celebration.

Maker’s Row, a free service that facilitates connections between designers and the small-batch American manufacturers that can help them turn a sketch into a real product, is on a roll. The startup has recently secured $1M in funding. The users are happy too — Tanya Menendez, COO and co-founder, was pleased to hear that an American manufacturer posted their company’s profile and had a meeting in just two days.

Researchers in Switzerland are developing a flying robot to navigate and collect data in cluttered environments. The robot is equipped to stick to vertical surfaces, and can recover and continue flying even after a crash. Reuters' Jim Drury reports.

Inventor Elon Musk calls his latest idea the Hyperloop: a high-speed transportation system that would speed people through hollow tubes at the speed of sound without turbulence, weather delays, or air traffic control. Imagine stepping into a car-sized capsule in downtown Los Angeles and, 30 minutes later, emerging in San Francisco.

Imagine stepping into a car-sized capsule in downtown Los Angeles and, 30 minutes later, emerging in San Francisco. On Monday, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk unveiled a transportation concept that he said could whisk passengers the nearly 400 miles from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 30 minutes — half the time it takes an airplane. If it's ever built.

In 1939 – and inspired by a plastic toothbrush – L.A. Blackwellhad a simple dream: To be able to produce a well-made, standard, plastic product. He built his first injection molding machine by hand and Houston, TX became home to a leader in custom plastics injection molding and extrusion: Blackwell Plastics, Inc.

Twice as fast as an airplane, cheaper than a bullet train and completely self-powered: that's the mysterious transportation system that inventor and entrepreneur Elon Musk is promising to reveal design plans for Monday. Musk has been dropping hints about his "Hyperloop" system for more than a year during public events.